TAASA Review Issues

Looking around us, and at this issue of TAASA Review, it’s not difficult to realise what a lot is going on in the arts in Australia – and of course in our case, in the arts of Asia in particular.

While the main Asian Galleries at both the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales remain closed as they continue to undergo renovations, the National Gallery of Australia in June announced the $6.5 million purchase of a collection of Indonesian textiles, which ‘will position the Gallery as a valuable centre for the study of Indonesian textiles for years to come,’ to quote Minister for the Arts Richard Alston. The NGA exhibited some of these treasures for a short period (prior to a major exhibition in the middle of next year), providing interesting points of comparison with textiles currently on show in Trade Winds: arts of Southeast Asia, which continues at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. In the West, meanwhile, the Art Gallery of Western Australia has been hosting an exhibition of sumptuous Islamic treasures from the Kuwait National Museum for more than two months.

In contemporary visual arts, the Biennale of Sydney, featuring a number of important artists from the Asian region, has just finished, while the fourth Asia Pacific Triennial is about to open in Brisbane. In the performing arts, The Theft of Sita is touring European festivals, the Australian ensemble Synergy Percussion has just completed an overseas tour, Eitetsu Hayashi and his taiko drums from Japan made a most successful visit playing with Australian orchestras and ensembles, and the Sydney Asia Pacific Film Festival and the Asian Music and Dance Festival also took place in Sydney during August.

While TAASA Review can’t possibly cover all such activities, in this issue we have a go at covering the personal inspiration behind some of them. Michael Askill, composer and performer, describes how he put together the musical program for a concert for the Dalai Lama last May. Producer Wendy Blacklock provides a brief history of that marvellous collaboration The Theft of Sita, with contributions from composer Paul Grabowsky and director Nigel Jamieson. Furniture designer Edward Wong talks to Ian Were about his recent mentorship with coutourier Akira Isagawa, revealing that his mother was a dressmaker.

All curators – in fact all of us – will understand and sympathise with Bronwyn Campbell’s eloquent personal account of her two years (to date) as Curator at the National Museum in Laos, funded by Australian Volunteers Abroad. Working in a country where there is widespread general poverty and only a very small number of trained museum professionals can obviously be quite discouraging at times; but I’m sure all who read this article will sincerely hope that Bronwyn is able to stay in Laos for another term to keep up her good work.

Another curator, Claire Roberts, writes about taking an exhibition of Hedda Morrison’s photographs back to their home city of Beijing. In September, these photographs, together with a selection of work by contemporary Chinese photographers, will open at the Powerhouse as part of the year-long celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Australia and China. TAASA’s contribution to these celebrations will be a tour to China led by TAASA President Judith Rutherford, and a symposium on Chinese art in Sydney, both to take place in November this year.

Also in this issue is another piece in TAASA’ s occasional ‘personal view’ series that we call Traveller’s Choice. This time it’s Ann Proctor writing about the little-known museums of Bhutan. As I’ve noted before, we’re keen to receive more contributions from members on this theme. Such information can whet the traveller’s appetite and encourage us to explore where we haven’t been before.